The city of Montreal

After a few days of having both Olivia and Sophie sick, Tony and I finally made it into the city this week to explore. We have had a couple of trips to the city with the children but the cold and snow made it hard to explore much. We thought on our own we would be able to explore and find the essence of the city

Montreal has an "old city" which is near the port on the St Laurent River. There are cobbled streets and very old architecture in the area. Slightly further away from the old city is "Downtown Montreal" which is the modern business and shopping centre.  This area is dominated by the underground city that Montreal is famous for: we now know why! Its too damn cold on the streets, so everyone stays underground. The underground city, known as RESO, is a network of corridors and tunnels that continues for several kilometres. All of the metro stations in the downtown area are connected to the RESO and it is completely possiblyto not step into fresh air all day. There is a ridiculous number of shopping centres that merge into each other, intercepted with office blocks along the way. There are food courts dotted around everywhere, really eliminating the need to go outside. One benefit of the RESO is that you don't need to go to the effort of putting on outdoor shoes and coats at lunch time, so you do see smarter dress people!

We are a little saddened to admit that we are feeling underwhelmed by Montreal. We can't see the beauty in the city at this stage, which is more likely due to the snow! I'm missing colour. Everything is white and while that is beautiful in one sense, it doesn't give any contrast or variation in the streetscape. One thing we do like is the effort that the city goes to brighten the landscape. Trees have lights in them & shops/restaurants include lights in their displays.

We've been told that the city change so much as spring comes and it's like a different country when the temps warm up.  All the promotional photos of Montreal show the city during summer; or in perfect fresh snow with lots of lights, which is not how it appears on a regular day.

One thing we like, but is not working to its potential currently, is the number of green spaces around the city. There are many parks, often small, but dotted around where you can sit and relax to soak up the sun. Obviously not so much at this time of year, but it is these spaces that make us understand how the city will transform once the snow disappears. This photo here shows one of these small parks. A few bench seats, a statue of someone special and .... persumably grass underneath? No-one has enjoyed this space today!

The other aspect where there is little colour is in the cars. Crazy: but there are hardly any brightly coloured cars. A little aside here: salt and grit is spread on roads almost daily, to prevent cars sliding on the black ice. The grit then gets crushed by the cars and becomes dust. It settles on cars, as does the salt residue, meaning that cars always look dirty and dusty. Garages are rare, so cars are continually exposed to the elements. But ... they always look dirty! All cars have this dull, grey look to them. The clean, white cars stand out & we wonder how they can be so clean!

The photos show off some of the city. I think they show the lack of colour and light. We did laugh at the bike: obviously a cyclist just gave up!


And yes, it was snowing on the day we were in the city. We spent the afternoon exploring the RESO, but decided it was really just shops. We were after the character of a city, not shops! We look forward to watching the city transform once the snow melts and the colour returns.